X1900XT Crossfire vs 7800GTX SLI.So which then?

**pumbertot** · 01-24-2006, 03:24 PM

Seeing so many threads with benches etc and it seems that ATI has blown away Nvidia with the X1900XT crossfire over the 7800gtx 512mb SLI. Well ive got 512mb gtx SLI on its way but have I f%$"ed up? Is the difference really so big and so ive wated my money?

Please tell me this aint so.

**Rattle** · 01-24-2006, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by pumbertot

Seeing so many threads with benches etc and it seems that ATI has blown away Nvidia with the X1900XT crossfire over the 7800gtx 512mb SLI. Well ive got 512mb gtx SLI on its way but have I f%$"ed up? Is the difference really so big and so ive wated my money?

Please tell me this aint so.

I dont know how big the difference is, i would imagine 2x1900's would be at least equal on their worse day, also ya gotta figure about $300 less for both for maybe better performance....

**dnottis** · 01-24-2006, 03:41 PM

Call the vendor you bought it from and refuse the package - get your cash and get an x1900xtx.

**Turok** · 01-24-2006, 03:49 PM

In most benchmarks a single x1900xt is better, but compareing SLI vs Crossfire, the 2x x1900xt seems to have a huge advantage especially on verry high resolutions where gamers become verry GPU dependent.

IMO, it was a waste to get 2x 7800 GTX 512mb. Even 2x x1800xt on Crossfire beats the GTX 512mb on SLI on some benchmarks.
Try to get that money back and buy 2x x1900xt for about $500 each and wait for the RD580 to get the best Crossfire mobos.

If you want the ultimate performance, Im sure the G71 will be better than the x1900xt, and cheaper than the GTX 512mb. Just wait until March if you are willing to spend $750 per video card.

EDIT:
Here are some benchmarks from Anadtech:

**zakelwe** · 01-24-2006, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by pumbertot

Seeing so many threads with benches etc and it seems that ATI has blown away Nvidia with the X1900XT crossfire over the 7800gtx 512mb SLI. Well ive got 512mb gtx SLI on its way but have I f%$"ed up? Is the difference really so big and so ive wated my money?

Please tell me this aint so.

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/20.../index.x?pg=14

Conclusions
Well, it looks like the Radeon X1900 XTX has earned the title of the fastest single video card known to man. Oddly, though, two Radeon X1900 cards in a CrossFire config can't claim the title of the fastest two video cards known to man. The CrossFire card's marginally slower clock speeds, along with a tendency not to scale quite as well as SLI overall, leave that title with NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX cards in SLI. Still, the Radeon X1900 series is quite an accomplishment. If they are indeed widely available for sale as planned, they should be very solid choices for those looking to spend an insane amount of money on a graphics card, especially since GeForce 7800 GTX 512 cards have become scarce and expensive since their launch.

For SLi\Xfire it seems both provide insane frame rates, depends on which games you play, but even so can you tell the difference between 120 and 110 fps ..whatever you will have a great rig.

If you are benching though X1900XTX Xfire all the way I would say !

Regards

Andy

**`SippY** · 01-24-2006, 04:02 PM

depends on the games you play(i assume its for games or benching)in the most demanding games out(fear & Cod2)the x1900xt(x) is much faster at high res and lots of aa and other high settings, but with low demanding games there is not a huge difference, which dosent matter anyways considering you dont even need two of these for, as for benching as far as i no these are faster but no one has released enough info to no exactly how much faster. from what i have seen the xtx will probably break 20k in 05 with crossfire.

**softpain** · 01-24-2006, 04:07 PM

Depend on the resolution you play and wich games....

And of course the price and IQ.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2679&p=12

In all cases, ATI will have the image quality advantage with angle independent AF and 6x MSAA.
We tend to like NVIDIA's transparency SSAA a little better than ATI's adaptive AA, but that may just come down to opinion and it still doesn't make up for the quality advantages the X1900 holds over the 7800 GTX lineup.

it’s the crop of games that haven’t been released yet which could show the most significant benefits. As game developers continue to incorporate more shaders into their games and begin to rely on more of shader model 3.0’s features like dynamic branching, the performance potential of the Radeon X1900’s R580 architecture will increase.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/...580-part3.html

I also want to note that the efficiency of Shaders 3.0 in terms of (dynamic) branching is manifold higher in the X1900 XTX than in the competitor from NVIDIA, which may also have a positive effect in future games.

Anyway, the R580 works much better with pixel shaders than the R520. The new chip can be really called a shader king. It noticeably outperforms the G70 in any calculations that are not limited by texture sampling.

If the game is already released. Then the case may go against the R580. Just because programmers didn't know about its features and high performance in computing rather than texture sampling.

GeForce 7800 GTX 512 is generally bested in all modern games, and Radeon X1000-series products have enough significant image quality advantages to give X1900 XT the nod even if the performance difference was slight in either direction, comparatively speaking.

**pumbertot** · 01-24-2006, 04:17 PM

well i like paying all the eycandy games and its 1900x1200(or 1600x1200 in some games) on a 2405fpw. lol not from vendors, 2nd hand off xtreme guys so cancelling not an option though can always sell on.
i quite like the expert atm so maybe when the equiv xfire mob comes with the new chipset, might go for it then.

@zakelwe, surely from the benches/games shown xfire is faster than sli?

**`SippY** · 01-24-2006, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by pumbertot

well i like paying all the eycandy games and its 1900x1200(or 1600x1200 in some games) on a 2405fpw. lol not from vendors, 2nd hand off xtreme guys so cancelling not an option though can always sell on.
i quite like the expert atm so maybe when the equiv xfire mob comes with the new chipset, might go for it then.

@zakelwe, surely from the benches/games shown xfire is faster than sli?

if you play at theose resolutions their is no doubt that the x1900's in crossfire arnt for you

**CrashOv3r1De** · 01-24-2006, 04:28 PM

The X1900 CF blows the GTX512 SLI out of the water my man. I just switched from single GTX512 to X1900 XTX and it is awesome let me tell you.

Plus the x1900 is easier to get a hold of and CHEAPER!!

**trans am** · 01-24-2006, 05:00 PM

Originally Posted by pumbertot

Seeing so many threads with benches etc and it seems that ATI has blown away Nvidia with the X1900XT crossfire over the 7800gtx 512mb SLI. Well ive got 512mb gtx SLI on its way but have I f%$"ed up? Is the difference really so big and so ive wated my money?

Please tell me this aint so.

I would just get some beer and overclock all night long and take the nv card and overclock the heck out of it and then save your results and post them here. Next take the card and sell it.

Then by that time the ati will go down in price and then buy that card with the nv money.

Then repeat the aforementioned.

Beerfore you know it you will be drinking beer again buying ati R990

**ahmad** · 01-24-2006, 05:23 PM

The biggest issue is: no HDR+AA for your SLI setup. Which means pretty much no AA in all next gen games if you wish to use HDR for a better experience. Not to mention ATI has HQ AF going for it + Avivo + some really nice performance.

Until nvidia spews anything out, buying a 7800GTX 512 SLI is the ultimate waste of money IMO right now. Also, in gaming even the x1800XT Crossfire beats the 7800GTX 512 SLI at uber high AA modes (10-14x).

Earlier I would have said maybe SLI if you are benching, but that is no longer the case with the x1900 around.

**Turok** · 01-24-2006, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by `SippY

if you play at theose resolutions their is no doubt that the x1900's in crossfire arnt for you

Ummm...
Did you see the benchmark images I posted on the x1900 Anandtech benchmarks?

You can clearely see that even the x1800xt beats the GTX 512mb on 80% of the benchmarks at a 1920x1400 (just in case you havent noticed).
The x1900xt has a HUGE advantage on Crossfire, and it's especially noticeable on really high resolutions with AA and AF.

Clearely Crossfire seems to be more eficient than SLI, and was proven with the x1800 series. A single x1800xt is slower than the GTX 512mb, but with a Crossfire solution it becomes faster. Crossfire will get even better with the release of the RD580 chipset, especially with the x1900 series.

Plus, the GTX 512mb cant do AA + HDR. That's another advantage for the x1800 and x1900 series. With all the extra FPS on a Crossfire solution AA off, you could use it up for AA + HDR and still get decent FPS.

And even if you think the x1900 runs close, but inferior to the GTX 512mb (which isnt true), why would you buy the GTX 512mb ($750) when the x1900 can be found for about $500.

The g71 will probably be the best video card in the world when it releases, but the x1900 will still be an atractive card because of the low price and high performance and image quality.

**perkam** · 01-24-2006, 05:51 PM

If price is not an obstacle, 7800GTX 512 SLI.

If you're on a budget and prefer to save the extra $300-$350 from going w/ X1900 xfire, then go with that.

Why?

- X1900 Crossfire card bottlenecks the entire setup, especially with an XTX slave.
- The SLI-DR Expert's main competitor (RD580 32 lane xfire) is due out in February
- xfire drivers for x1900 will take time to mature

I may be inclined towards of ATI at times, but the above factors combined with sli vs xfire results from multiple reviews confirm that recommendation...again, if money is not a concern.

Though on the single-card side, I would suggest a single XTX if you wished to go the "sane" route. At $599 from newegg with 1.1ns ram, it beats X1800 stock xfire results multiple times.

Perkam

**rodman** · 01-24-2006, 08:03 PM

WAIT for the G71, trust me. It's not like any good 'demanding' games are going to be out till after the G71 is released anyway. Why get the fastest card now with no new games to use it with. At least I got my 7800512 the day they came out, there were all kinds of new games out at that time

**ahmad** · 01-24-2006, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by rodman

WAIT for the G71, trust me. It's not like any good 'demanding' games are going to be out till after the G71 is released anyway. Why get the fastest card now with no new games to use it with. At least I got my 7800512 the day they came out, there were all kinds of new games out at that time

Yeah wait for the G71, then buy the r590. Then wait for the r600/g80 then the r620 and so on.

**`SippY** · 01-24-2006, 11:17 PM

Originally Posted by Turok

Ummm...
Did you see the benchmark images I posted on the x1900 Anandtech benchmarks?

actually i dident, when i first loaded the page they never showed up, later after i checked the thread i saw them again and decided not to delete my post

**gundamit** · 01-25-2006, 04:58 AM

Nothing quite like buyers remorse even before the purchase arrives. Relax. Bust out the cards and enjoy gaming at 1920x1600 until your next major upgrade. If you hadn't already pulled the trigger I would have suggested the single x1900xt as the bang/buck champ on the high end. As far as dual card configurations, in games, overall (with a few exceptions like FEAR) I doubt you'll notice much difference when compared to a CF set-up. As the CF drivers mature a bit more the CF might start to stand out a bit more.

For games I thinks its hard to justify dual card on a bang/buck basis since performance doesn't seem to scale that dramatically. If you're a 3D bencher then by all means stick with a dual card set-up.

If you can't sleep worrying if you made the wrong decision, refuse the package ( as suggested earlier) and wait until the next Nvidia GPU comes out and see how if performs against the x1900 series with more mature drivers on the the next ATI mobo chipset.

**pumbertot** · 01-25-2006, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by gundamit

Nothing quite like buyers remorse even before the purchase arrives. Relax. Bust out the cards and enjoy gaming at 1920x1600 until your next major upgrade. If you hadn't already pulled the trigger I would have suggested the single x1900xt as the bang/buck champ on the high end. As far as dual card configurations, in games, overall (with a few exceptions like FEAR) I doubt you'll notice much difference when compared to a CF set-up. As the CF drivers mature a bit more the CF might start to stand out a bit more.

For games I thinks its hard to justify dual card on a bang/buck basis since performance doesn't seem to scale that dramatically. If you're a 3D bencher then by all means stick with a dual card set-up.

If you can't sleep worrying if you made the wrong decision, refuse the package ( as suggested earlier) and wait until the next Nvidia GPU comes out and see how if performs against the x1900 series with more mature drivers on the the next ATI mobo chipset.

lol they are 2nd hand 512mb gtx that i got at good prices so im not losing anything and much much less than 2x1900xt in uk at £460 each. its costing me about £360 each so im already up on money. so money isnt the issue and after seeing that 19k on sli im quite happy to stay with nvidia for now. my x2 4800 does 2.95Ghz on water but ive still got that machII GT regass with extra condensor mod by BERKUt(bought from hardcoreclocker here on xtreme) up my sleeve so 3.3GHz shouldnt be a problem. hence with both gtx voltmodded and their own 120.3 PA loop 18k-19k shouldnt be far off.

so basically going to stay SLI atm and think about other options in future(G71)? maybe nvidia will now do something to improve forcewares as im still a believer that ATI much better drivers help give them the edge.

thanks for all the replies guys, you have helped shape things but mostly thank you Kingpin for the 19k bench.

**CrashOv3r1De** · 01-25-2006, 02:40 PM

To sum it all up for SINGLE CARD X1900 XTX is king...CF needs a little time to mature and when that happens it will dethrone SLI...What we need is the R580 Xfire mobo and better drivers.

**mdzcpa** · 02-05-2006, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by CrashOv3r1De

The X1900 CF blows the GTX512 SLI out of the water my man.

I think not my man

By the time ATI gets CF figured out the G71 will be here. I cancelled my order for a X1900XT CF set up. Far too inefficient. ATI rules for single card. But it'll be too late for CF this round.

**softpain** · 02-06-2006, 06:47 AM

By the time ATI gets CF figured out the G71 will be here. I cancelled my order for a X1900XT CF set up. Far too inefficient. ATI rules for single card. But it'll be too late for CF this round.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2679&p=8